"People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid."
- Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Quid Pro Quo - Sex for Promotion...why is it wrong?

I have moved. The phone line doesn't work, which wouldn't be a problem but to work from home on my laptop I have to dial in (DSL doesn't work from the home location to get into the secure server). So even though renovation is not complete on the offices, I'm here again anyway.

On another note, I know I'm in the minority on this issue, but why is quid pro quo in the case of sex for promotion considered so awful? First of all, if I own a business why isn't it my right to determine promotions on whatever grounds I see fit? If people don't like the advancement ladder at my company they can go get a job somewhere else. If the promotion ladder is so undesirable that I can't attract quality workers my business will go under. It seems fairly simple. In fact, I can make the case that if you want to have less men and women as being street prostitutes then the first step is to allow this so that they can get higher quality jobs with benefits.

I would also like to add that all promotions are based upon quid pro quo, just not necessarily for sex. The standard promotion criteria as I experienced it is "you make me look good, and I'll promote you." This is a quid pro quo scenerio. Why do we as Americans view sex so differently?

I have heard the argument before that the sex is coerced. Sleep with me or you lose your job. We have become a society that views everything as coerced. It is still consensual sex, but the woman might feel that the less undesirable outcome is engaging in sex to unemployment. That is still her choice. I might add that noone stops to wonder if she would even have a job if the employer wasn't interested in the prospect of potential sex?

I'm rambling a bit now, but I want one of my friends who is for legalized prostitution to let me know why they support that, but believe that this type of "sexual harassment" should be illegal.

Okay, I have to get back to work since working from home has become such a problem.